3000 Year Old Mummy Tattoo

3,000 Year old female mummy was covered in hidden tattoos. The mummy, found in a village called Deir el-Medina, Egypt, was once a woman who proudly inked sacred wadjet eyes on her neck, shoulders, and back, lotus blossoms on her hips, and cows on her arm.

Tattoos on the mummy’s neck

The mummy was found in the village Deir el-Medina. Note that some tattoos are visible to the naked eye, but others are on parts of the body that have been blackened by resins used for mummification.

Using infrared imaging, anthropologist Ghada Darwish Al-Khafif was able to see this tattoo of two cows, representing the goddess Hathor. She also used digital editing to compensate for the stretching of the image caused by desiccation of the mummy’s skin.

Anthropologist Ghada Darwish Al-Khafif uses infrared imaging to see the tattoos on the damaged skin.